Here you can find a useful collection of games and activity you might want to use for your teaching. If you want to add more games and activities or need help to understand advices, feel free to talk to your Coordinator.
VOCABULARY GAME:
Materials needed:
Chairs to sit in a circle
How to play:
clap to the following rhythm: clap on your lap twice and clap your hands twice. One person does the introduction: Categories...presents...names of...(choose a vocab topic that they are familiar with i.e. food/home vocab/months/verbs... depending on their level)...for example... - and then you go around in a circle and say different words that belong to that topic - whoever is too slow when it´s his/her turn or repeats a word is out
CHAIN SPELLING:
fun game to practice vocabulary of any category
Materials needed:
board and whiteboard markers
How to play: start with a word in English and write it on the board. The next person has to find a word that starts with the letter that the word before had ended with - having several chains at once makes it more fun if you get stuck with one of them To make it more challenging: choose a specific category i.e. verbs, food, home vocab, animals... Advice: to keep them engaged t(especially if it´s a big group) turn it into a competition and give "points" for each correct word they add to the chain (i.e. without taking turns)
DICE "NUMBER" GAME:
to practice numbers
Materials needed:
dice & one little board per Student
How to play:
the teacher throws the dice (depending on level how many), the students count and then write the number correctly on their little board to show it to their teacher - whoever spells it correctly the fastest WINS
WHO AM I:
fun game to practice speaking (i.e. Course 7: occupation vocab)
Materials needed:
sticky notes
How to play:
Write the name of a person that everybody knows (in the original version it´s a famous person) on a sticky note and stick it on your classmate´s forehead. Then each person with a sticky note asks his/her classmates questions like "Am I a woman?" "Am I old?" and try to guess from the answers (Yes, you are a woman./No, you are not old.) who he/she is.
with occupation vocab: To turn this into a game to practice vocab you could play this with occupation vocab and have the students ask questions like "Do I (want to) help sick people? Do I like to cook? (also practicing "like" and "want" maybe) --> to practice the third person singular s you could also turn it into a guessing game about a third person that is not participating in the game (i.e. Does he teach children? Does he work in a school?)
MINDMAPS:
for vocabulary! (i.e. Course 7: occupation vocab)
Materials needed:
Whiteboard & markers
How to play:
write a key word or main topic in the middle of the board and add undercategories with lines around them. Then write vocab or ideas around those and continue having different students adding thoughts and other vocab connected to the topic
Advice: depending on how advanced your students are you can already write the undercategories or have them come up with them :)
PEOPLE CARDS:
Course 2: appearance & clothing vocab
Materials needed:
"People Cards" or pictures of a lot of people with different clothes and appearance
How to play: a Student describes a person and others guess who it is (He has black pants and a blue tshirt...) OR classmates ask a Student who chooses a person on the card questions (i.e. Does he have glasses?) about the person and guess from the answers (Yes, he has glasses/No, he doesn´t have glasses) who it is.
Advice: have your students play in teams if you have a big class
THIS /THAT/ THESE/ THOSE
Course 1/Course 3
Materials needed:
flashcards with singular and plural vocabulary
This/that/these/those flashcards
I have found that with a rowdy group they need more active activities and with grammar it can be hard. BUT I have realized you can make just about anything into a running game, fortunately. During a training we had, I learned that the more students use their body, the better they remember. So getting children up and active will help them remember the words/grammar you are trying to teach them.
How to play:
First, make sure to go over the concepts of this/that/these/those on the board. I make sure the kids understand the meanings and that this/that are singular while these/those are plural. You also have to explain when to use a vs. adding an s for plural ie. This is a pen. These are pens. Then I have them come up with examples. I try and pair this exercise with the vocab they are learning at the time. School vocab is what the curriculum says and using objects on the table is always easiest, especially to make examples.
Next, I have the students bring their notebooks and pencils outside or to the park (depending on the community). I have flashcards that say this/these and that/those. This/these stay with the teacher as well as flashcards with pictures of school vocab. I have one kid run the flashcards that/those along with more school vocab a good distance away from the teacher. This can vary depending on how far you want the kids to run! Then the teacher says sentences in Spanish (previously prepared) and the children have to run if it uses that/those or stay close if uses this/these. They must write the sentence in English and then show or tell the teacher to check it. The competition and the movement in this has always been successful when taught.
Examples:
esos son perros- those are dogs.
estos son gatos- these are cats.
eso es un mono- that is a monkey.
esto es un elefante- this is an elephant.
Advice: Even if you do speak Spanish, prepare your spanish sentences in advance so that you don’t make a mistake by accident and confuse the kids.
If the group is extra rowdy say more sentences using “that” “those” so that they are running more.
Make sure students are using Capital letters at the beginning of the sentences, and periods.
Extra challenge (optional): Can have the students make multiple sentences to make it more difficult. Ie. This is a cat. He is happy.
Materials needed:
Set of personal pronoun flashcards (e.g. I/You/He/She/It/We/They)
Set of object pronoun flashcards (e.g. book/brother/cat,etc.)
How to play:
This can be played either in teams or individually. Teacher scatters flashcards of subjects and objects all over class setting (or open space). The students then race to find as many pairs of subject + object pronouns. After all flashcards are retrieved, students must gather (either as a team or an individual) to (non)verbally change the subjects to possessive adjectives E.g. if student(s) pair up: ‘I’ and ‘pencil’ = “My pencil.”
Advice:
If students find it difficult to take in all possessive adjective forms, teacher may want to focus on singular person forms (e.g. my/your/his/her/its) and later move on to plural person forms (e.g. our/their).
Extra challenge (optional): To make it slightly challenging, use people’s names or other pronouns such as ‘Teresa and I, Michael and Jeremy, The dog’ in place of general personal pronouns as this will require students to think of the appropriate possessive adjective. Note: ‘We = Our’ ‘They = Their’ were slightly challenging for students. MUSICAL CHAIRS WITH CAN - QUESTIONS
Course 2
Materials needed:
Number of chairs (depends on group size - e.g. if there are 8 people playing, this activity only needs 7 chairs)
How to play:
Place chairs in a circle facing each other. Have all students sit down except for one who will be standing in the middle of the circle. The middle person must ask a Can-question E.g. ‘Can you play the piano?’ Those sitting who answer ‘Yes, I can’ must switch seats with other students who answer ‘Yes, I can’. At the same time of movement, the middle person can run to grab their seat as well. The person who is left without a seat takes the middle person’s role to ask a can-question. If only one person says ‘Yes, I can’, that person must switch with the middle person. If NO ONE says ‘Yes’, then the middle person must continue to ask Can-questions.
Advice:
Best to model to students by getting teacher to play the middle person as a form of practice. When students understand how the activity works, teacher may make the activity student-centred by stepping out of the game.
Extra challenge (optional): Depending on student group size and if they’re up for the task, you may set a rule for students that they cannot switch seats with students on their left or right but can switch with people a seat away or across from them.
SPEED CHALLENGE WITH DAYS AND MONTHS
(or anything sequence-based), Course 4
Materials needed:
Flashcards with English words of days or months on one side (words can be substituted for other things like numbers)
How to play:
Lie flashcards upside down, blank-side up. Ask the students to rearrange flashcards in the right sequence for the first time. Once they are comfortable, time them and get them to do it faster and faster to beat their previous times.
Advice:
Best to start without a time first until your students are comfortable with the introduced sequence. Otherwise they might take too long the first time and lose morale.
Extra challenge (optional): N/A
LEARNING PREPOSITIONS WITH ANIMALS
(or any other set of nouns), Course 4
Materials needed:
Flashcards of animals (or any other set of verbs)
How to play:
Introduce the animals (or any other set of nouns) and prepositions separately. Once the kids are starting to familiarise themselves with both in one blended activity. For example, hold a card of a lion above a card of a mouse and ask, “Where is the lion”. The answer you’re looking for is, “The lion is on the mouse”. Give each student who shouts the right answer first 10 points. Do it for as many times as you want until you feel they’ve improved their grasp of the animals and prepositions.
Extra challenge (optional): Distribute animal cards to each kid. Instead of quizzing the students, ask each student to take turns quizzing the others to practice their questioning.
MEMORY GAMES
Materials needed:
2 sets of flashcards from the same topic (verbs, food, animal, etc.)
How to play:
Vocabulary: one set of images and one set with the words. Scatter each set and the kids have to find the correct matches.
Verbs (for example for past simple): one set of the verbs in infinitive and the other set with the verbs in past simple. The kids than have to find the matching verbs. USE OF SMALL BOARDS
Materials needed:
Small white boards and if needed flashcards.
How to play:
Each kid has its own small white boards. There are different possibilities how to use them. If wanted, the teacher can count points. Very good to avoid the kids to scream answers and very competitive. If the kids still scream answers, the teacher can erase or give negative points.
Possibilities:
Teacher says a word in Spanish, and the kids have to write it in English on their boards.
Teacher shows an image and the kids have to write the name on their boards.
Teacher says a verb in infinitive and the kids have to write the past form (or vice-versa). CHINESE TELEPHONE
Materials needed:
Board
How to play:
The principle of chinese telephone is that a first person (can be the teacher or a kid) whispers a word or sentence in the ear of a second person. Then that person whispers it in the ear of a third person, and so on until the last person got to hear the word or sentence. That last person then has to write the word or sentence on the board. In the case that the word or sentence is wrong, the teacher can then go backwards and ask each kid what did they hear.
Good to use at the beginning of the class as a review activity. Good activity to also practice pronunciation and the structure of sentences (for example with prepositions of time). USE OF MULTIMEDIA
songs and videos and books
Songs:
Print song lyrics and listen to the song. Different activities possible:
Find all the vocabulary (family, food, etc.) taught during the lesson
Find all the verbs in the past
Can also be used outside of the curriculum, where the kids have to underline/circle all the words that they know or that they don’t know.
Videos:
Show short videos or animations (from Youtube), 3-6min. There also, different activities possible.
Teacher asks questions based on the grammar learned. For example, if teaching past continuous, the teacher can stop the video at specific moments and ask “What was he/she doing?” and the kids have to answer using the past continuous, fpr example “She was reading”.
Let the kids make questions and anser them. Good to practice making questions.
It is recommended to go over the theory before showing the video. Also it is good to let the kids see it once completely before the exercise. NUMBER GAME
Materials needed:
Board
How to play:
All the kids have to stand up, and the teacher gives them a logical series of numbers. For example: 1,2,3,4.... or 2,4,6,8,... or 2,5,3,6,4,... . And they have to continue and say the next number, one after the other. When a kid doesn’t know or say a wrong number, he/she has to sit down. The last one standing up, is the winner.
Very quick game as it is possible to play just one or 2 rounds, or 5-6 rounds.
PREPOSITIONS OF PLACE
Materials needed:
One chair per kid, and then a bunch of items (pencils, books, balls, sacks, markers, etc.). Preferably the same number of objects than kids (if there are 5 kids, then 5 pencils, 5 books,etc.), but it can be more competitive with less numbers of objects.
How to play:
Each kid has a chair, aligned at the end of the “field”. In the middle of the field, there are bunch of items like books, pencils, markers, small boards, etc. The teacher says a sentence out loud (ex: there are two pencils behind the chair). The kids then have to run, get the correct item and place it correctly to their chair. The first kid to do it correctly, gets a point. MR. WOLFF
good for emotion vocabulary
Materials needed:
Flashcards
How to play:
One Kid is Mr. Wolff and has all the flashcards, the others stand in line and ask a Question. For example : The kids ask "How are you?" Mr Wolff answers : " I am (emotion)" and read the emotion at the card. The kids have to go one step forward and go so nearer to Mr. Wolff. When Mr. Wolff answers "I am hungry" all kids have to run and Mr. Wolff tries to catch one kid. The catched kid is the new Mr. Wolff.
GO FISH
Go fish with vocab- can be played with any vocabulary; school, family, clothing etc. Focus on practicing pronunciation
CREATING A STORY
Creating a story with pictures and sentences- take one piece of paper and the first person draws a picture, then the next person has to write one sentence. Fold the paper down so the picture is hidden and the next person must draw a picture based on the previous sentence. This continues until the page is filled. Can give a theme to practice ie. If students are studying the verb "to have" they must write sentences using this verb.
GAME SHOW
Game show- slapping game to practice vocabulary - students are in teams and the teacher shows flashcards and students must slap the table, chair. Whoever slaps first gets to say the correct vocab word. With each correct answer the team gets a point.
BEAN BAG
Bean bag toss to make up a story- each child says a word- take a bean bag and stand in a circle with the students. This can be used to practice vocab, or if the students are more advanced they can each say one word to make a story. UNO
Game UNO to practice numbers and colors MEMORY (vocabulary) :
Have two sets of flashcards. One set has pictures and the other set has the corresponding words. Put all the cards face down on a table and the students are allowed to reveal two cards at a time. If the picture matches the word the student can keep the cards. If not the cards go back face down in the same place and the game continues. Can be used with all vocab, numbers, etc. SCATTEGORIES ( Vocabulary):
Choose one or many categories i.e. food, school, animal etc. and have the students think of as many words as they can that relate to the category. You can play multiple categories and choose one letter i.e. sandwich, scissors, snake.
GAMBLE ON CORRECTING SENTENCES (Grammar/Vocab/Sentence Structure) :
Write some sentences on the board that have errors. They can be any type of errors depending on what you are trying to teach i.e. spelling, sentence structure, grammar. Give a value to each of the sentences depending on their level of difficulty, the most difficult sentence to correct will have the highest value, the easiest will have the lowest. Then ask the students to form groups and to correct the sentences together. When they are ready to correct the sentences one group will choose a sentence to correct, they can choose any value they want. If they successfully correct the sentence they get the value attached to it. If they do not successfully correct the sentence give other groups the opportunity to do it. The team at the end with the highest total wins. SIMON SAYS (commands/ Action Verbs/ Verbal Comprehension):
Everyone knows this classic. The teacher issues simple instructions to the class. The class responds only if the teacher says the phrase "Simon Says" before the command. If a student performs the action that wasn't prefaced by "Simon Says" they are out. This is a good game for beginner classes to learn classroom commands and simple action verbs. ALPHABET WORD RACE (Vocabulary):
This game can be played in a variety of ways. For example you can ask the students to try and write a word for every letter of the alphabet. The first team to get all the letters wins or the team with the most answers after a certain time period wins. Or you can focus on one letter or a group of letters and the students need to write as many words as they can starting with that letter. WHAT IS THIS? (Vocabulary/ Writing):
Divide the students up into two teams and line them up in two lines behind you. Hold up or point to an object and say “What is this?” Stress that the first student in each line must try to say the correct word (using the vocabulary written on the board as a reference). If neither student remembers the correct word, a team member behind them can whisper it in their ear. Then you might want to turn this into a writing activity by erasing the words on the board and having the first team member in each line try to write the correct word. Their team members can help them but only one person on each team can touch the marker. Or, for groups that are getting too rowdy, sit them all back down and have them each individually write the word in their notebook when you show them the object. BINGO (Vocabulary):
Great game for vocabulary, new or review. Get the students to fill in squares with vocab on their own and then give words one at a time until someone has bingo, you can repeat the process until more people have bingo as well. If reviewing it is good to get the students to come up with the vocabulary on their own, try to elicit as much as possible. CLASS SURVEY (Speaking/ Writing/ Questions):
Tell the students to stand up with a notebook and pencil in hand. Have them walking around asking different students, “What is your name? How do you spell that?” The students have to try to write down as many names as possible in a limited amount of time (5-8 minutes). Supervise to make sure they are all spelling it to each other and not just writing down names that they know. For more advanced classes, have the students write down a list of 5-10 questions (what is your favorite food, what is the last movie you saw etc.). Then have the students go around the class and ask their classmates the question they created. The students should write down the answers in their notebook. Then spend some time sharing the answers with the whole class. MOTHER MAY I? (Numbers/Questions with Yes/No Answers):
One student stands at a distance from the rest of the group of students. The group of students take turns asking “Mother may I walk _ steps?” The single students says “Yes you may,” or “No, you may not.” The object is to be the first student from the group to tag the single student. Good review for numbers and questions with yes/no answers. BEANBAG THROW (Vocabulary / Qs and As/ Speaking):
Very simple and can be boring for more advanced students but easily adaptable for any level. All you need to do is get a bean bag and get the students to pass it among themselves, when they have the beanbag they need to say a word. This can be used for numbers, the alphabet, vocab words or even full sentences. It can also be good for questions and answers, one person asks a question and the person who catches the beanbag has to answer it. HOT POTATO /MUSICAL CHAIRS (Vocabulary/Qs and As/Speaking):
Similar to bean bag throw, except the students pass the bean bag around the circle while music is playing, when the music stops the last student to touch the bean bag has to say a sentence, vocabulary word, ask a question, etc. Easily adaptable for age/level. Musical Chairs is a similar concept. Lay out one less chair than you have students and when the music stops everyone has to sit down. One person will be left without a seat and they need to answer a questions to continue playing. Can adapt it so more than one person is left standing. HANGMAN (Alphabet/ Vocabulary):
Traditional game where students have to guess letters one by one and then finally the word. You can either choose one word for quick games, one word in a sentence or a full sentence for more advanced students. If students keep getting wrong answers give the hangman more detail i.e. 5 fingers, toes, eyes etc. You can vary this to play in teams or the whole class. SLOW WORD REVEAL (Vocabulary):
Choose some vocab and put the words on the board as you would in hangman (blank spaces). Number the words and ask students to choose a word to add a letter to. If they choose number 1 then reveal one letter in the word. After a letter is revealed the team gets to guess what the word is. If they guess the word correctly then they get a point. If they don't guess the word then the other team can reveal another letter. GUESS WHO (Appearance Vocabulary):
We have the board game in the office and at Tlacochahuaya. Better for more advanced students who already know lots of appearance vocab (mustache, hat, glasses). Can be adapted so the teacher is the only one who knows the person and the students are in two teams or the game can be played with pictures the students have drawn. I SPY (Vocabulary / Adjectives):
A good game to introduce adjectives. The spy finds an object in the room and tell the class "I spy something." Then the students take turns guessing. The person who guesses the object gets to be the next spy. This is a great game to play at the beginning of class while you are waiting for students to arrive. WORD /LETTER JUMBLE (Vocabulary /Sentence Structure)
For this you will need either a set of alphabet flashcards or flashcards of the words in your target sentences. If you are playing with two teams you will need two sets of both. The idea is that the teacher will say a word/sentence and then the students have to rearrange the flashcards to make that word/sentence. There are lots of variations of this game you can use so the students don’t get bored. For example, instead of having them all do it at once in a group you could turn it into a relay race so only one student chooses a card at a time. Another variation would be to put a question on the board and the group that forms an answer quickest wins. ROLE PLAY (Speaking):
This involves getting students to act out a certain scenario. For example, ordering food in a restaurant or talking to a doctor. This activity can be varied in a number of ways. You could have one each group perform in front of the class or have students mingle and act out the scenario in small groups around the classroom. WORD SEARCH (Vocab):
You can find lots of word searches on the internet or you can make your own. Have a large grid of letters, one letter in a different square. Hide the target words in the grid and have the students find the words. Great for reviewing or introducing vocab. BANKRUPT (Vocabulary /Sentence Structure / Grammar Review):
The idea of the game is to finish with as much money as possible. You can use flashcards with vocabulary or grammar points on one side then a monetary value on the other. The students pick a card and then if they give the correct answer they win the money. Have some fun cards such as bankrupt (they lose all their money), double money (they double the amount), switch (the team can choose to switch their money with the other team), etc. The game can be adapted easily to suit your class. For example, lower level students may have to use a vocab word to make a sentence or higher level students need to construct a sentence using a certain tense or grammar structure. FRUIT BOWL (Vocabulary):
Everyone needs to sit or stand in a circle. All of the students pick out a word appropriate to the vocab you’ve been teaching. Get everyone to go round the circle and shout what their word is. A word cannot be used more than once. Select one student to stand in the middle of the circle. You start the game by shouting out one of the other words (not the person in the middle). The person in the middle has to identify who has been called out and then try to tag them. The person who was called has to realise their word has been said and shout another vocab word before the person in the middle tags them. If someone is tagged then they become the person in the middle. MATH SPELLING (Math and Number Vocabulary/ Spelling):
Divide the students into two lines. Write a simple arithmetic expression on the board. The students at the front of the line have to correctly spell the answer. The team that can correctly spell the number first gets a point. You can make it harder by asking them to correctly spell/write the whole expression. AGE ORDER (Number/ Month Vocabulary/ Questions):
Have the students try to line up as quickly as they can in order of age. They must ask each other "how old are you" and can only speak English. After they can try to line up according to which month they were born. INDIVIDUAL WHITEBOARD GAMES:
1. Write numbers 1-10 on the board. Split class into teams and give each team a small whiteboard and a pen. Using the vocab/verbs that you have gone over in class (can also be written on the board), teacher erases a number and the teams have to create a sentence with that number of words in it. The first team to craft a correct sentence with the appropriate number of words gets a point. Good way to push students to write longer, more creative sentences as well as incorporate vocab/verbs from that day into sentences. Best for more intermediate students.
2. Telephone variation: Split class into teams and give each team a small whiteboard and a pen. Teacher whispers a sentence to one team member, they have to run back to their teammates and repeat the sentence. The first team to write the sentence correctly on their whiteboard gets the point. DICE GAMES:
1. (Vocab/Sentence Structure) With paddle white boards: roll the dice and students have to make a sentence with the same amount of words as shown on the dice. You can use 1 and 2 as trick numbers i.e. 1 = bankrupt, 2 = double points. When the students have made a sentence they need to write it on the paddle board and the first team to finish correctly and show the sentence wins.
2. (Vocab/Sentence Structure) If you're going over vocabulary, separate words into 2 to 6-letter words. Use dice to roll the number of letters in a word that they'll use in a sentence. Have everyone roll the dice and use different words. CRAYONS AND PAPER GAMES:
1. (Vocab/Sentence Structure) Draw pictures of the vocabulary you're working on. Cut them apart, share them, and use them in sentences.
2. (Directions/Giving Directions/Commands) Make hand drawn maps of different parts of town. Give directions from one place to another. Make sure the students have already studied instructions - can be difficult to explain.
3. (Adjectives) Create name tags for each other with alliteration: Super Susana, Marvelous Maria, Excellent Esteban. Think of as many adjectives as you can for each person.
4. (Appearance Vocab) Get students to draw pictures of themselves. They can either write sentences about their own appearance or tell other classmates. MAGAZINES AND BROCHURES:
1. (Descriptions/Writing/Speaking) Pick a picture and have students describe what they see. It may be very simple: "he is wearing a white shirt," "she is talking." Identify colors, objects and verbs. Count objects. Have each student write a simple story about what's happening in the picture.
2. (Clothes/Vacation Vocab) Go on "vacation" with a theme, for example, to the beach. Cut out wardrobe photos and have students "pack" their bag by gluing pictures into their notebooks. Pick activities to do while you're there. Have each student describe his or her choices to the group.
3. (Food/Restaurant Vocab/Speaking) Cut out food items and make a menu. Give each student a peso limit and have one of them add up selections. Play waiter and diner. Talk about common phrases to use in a restaurant.
4. (Directions) Get free maps from the tourist bureau and go over how to give and understand directions. Have pairs of students tell each other how to get from one place to another.
5. (Action Verbs/Writing/Speaking) Paste pictures onto index cards to illustrate action verbs. Have each student use them in a sentence, spell the word etc.
6. (Listening Comprehension/Speaking) Give groups of students magazines and ask them to search for something i.e. find a person with black hair. For bonus points ask them to repeat phrases associated with the class i.e. She has black hair.
VOCABULARY GAME:
Materials needed:
Chairs to sit in a circle
How to play:
clap to the following rhythm: clap on your lap twice and clap your hands twice. One person does the introduction: Categories...presents...names of...(choose a vocab topic that they are familiar with i.e. food/home vocab/months/verbs... depending on their level)...for example... - and then you go around in a circle and say different words that belong to that topic - whoever is too slow when it´s his/her turn or repeats a word is out
CHAIN SPELLING:
fun game to practice vocabulary of any category
Materials needed:
board and whiteboard markers
How to play:
start with a word in English and write it on the board. The next person has to find a word that starts with the letter that the word before had ended with - having several chains at once makes it more fun if you get stuck with one of them
To make it more challenging: choose a specific category i.e. verbs, food, home vocab, animals...
Advice: to keep them engaged t(especially if it´s a big group) turn it into a competition and give "points" for each correct word they add to the chain (i.e. without taking turns)
DICE "NUMBER" GAME:
to practice numbers
Materials needed:
dice & one little board per Student
How to play:
the teacher throws the dice (depending on level how many), the students count and then write the number correctly on their little board to show it to their teacher - whoever spells it correctly the fastest WINS
WHO AM I:
fun game to practice speaking (i.e. Course 7: occupation vocab)
Materials needed:
sticky notes
How to play:
Write the name of a person that everybody knows (in the original version it´s a famous person) on a sticky note and stick it on your classmate´s forehead. Then each person with a sticky note asks his/her classmates questions like "Am I a woman?" "Am I old?" and try to guess from the answers (Yes, you are a woman./No, you are not old.) who he/she is.
with occupation vocab: To turn this into a game to practice vocab you could play this with occupation vocab and have the students ask questions like "Do I (want to) help sick people? Do I like to cook? (also practicing "like" and "want" maybe) --> to practice the third person singular s you could also turn it into a guessing game about a third person that is not participating in the game (i.e. Does he teach children? Does he work in a school?)
MINDMAPS:
for vocabulary! (i.e. Course 7: occupation vocab)
Materials needed:
Whiteboard & markers
How to play:
write a key word or main topic in the middle of the board and add undercategories with lines around them. Then write vocab or ideas around those and continue having different students adding thoughts and other vocab connected to the topic
Advice: depending on how advanced your students are you can already write the undercategories or have them come up with them :)
PEOPLE CARDS:
Course 2: appearance & clothing vocab
Materials needed:
"People Cards" or pictures of a lot of people with different clothes and appearance
How to play:
a Student describes a person and others guess who it is (He has black pants and a blue tshirt...) OR classmates ask a Student who chooses a person on the card questions (i.e. Does he have glasses?) about the person and guess from the answers (Yes, he has glasses/No, he doesn´t have glasses) who it is.
Advice: have your students play in teams if you have a big class
THIS /THAT/ THESE/ THOSE
Course 1/Course 3
Materials needed:
flashcards with singular and plural vocabulary
This/that/these/those flashcards
I have found that with a rowdy group they need more active activities and with grammar it can be hard. BUT I have realized you can make just about anything into a running game, fortunately. During a training we had, I learned that the more students use their body, the better they remember. So getting children up and active will help them remember the words/grammar you are trying to teach them.
How to play:
First, make sure to go over the concepts of this/that/these/those on the board. I make sure the kids understand the meanings and that this/that are singular while these/those are plural. You also have to explain when to use a vs. adding an s for plural ie. This is a pen. These are pens. Then I have them come up with examples. I try and pair this exercise with the vocab they are learning at the time. School vocab is what the curriculum says and using objects on the table is always easiest, especially to make examples.
Next, I have the students bring their notebooks and pencils outside or to the park (depending on the community). I have flashcards that say this/these and that/those. This/these stay with the teacher as well as flashcards with pictures of school vocab. I have one kid run the flashcards that/those along with more school vocab a good distance away from the teacher. This can vary depending on how far you want the kids to run! Then the teacher says sentences in Spanish (previously prepared) and the children have to run if it uses that/those or stay close if uses this/these. They must write the sentence in English and then show or tell the teacher to check it. The competition and the movement in this has always been successful when taught.
Examples:
esos son perros- those are dogs.
estos son gatos- these are cats.
eso es un mono- that is a monkey.
esto es un elefante- this is an elephant.
Advice: Even if you do speak Spanish, prepare your spanish sentences in advance so that you don’t make a mistake by accident and confuse the kids.
If the group is extra rowdy say more sentences using “that” “those” so that they are running more.
Make sure students are using Capital letters at the beginning of the sentences, and periods.
Extra challenge (optional): Can have the students make multiple sentences to make it more difficult. Ie. This is a cat. He is happy.
POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVES
Course 2: Possessive adjectives (my/your/his/her/its/our/their)
Materials needed:
Set of personal pronoun flashcards (e.g. I/You/He/She/It/We/They)
Set of object pronoun flashcards (e.g. book/brother/cat,etc.)
How to play:
This can be played either in teams or individually. Teacher scatters flashcards of subjects and objects all over class setting (or open space). The students then race to find as many pairs of subject + object pronouns. After all flashcards are retrieved, students must gather (either as a team or an individual) to (non)verbally change the subjects to possessive adjectives E.g. if student(s) pair up: ‘I’ and ‘pencil’ = “My pencil.”
Advice:
If students find it difficult to take in all possessive adjective forms, teacher may want to focus on singular person forms (e.g. my/your/his/her/its) and later move on to plural person forms (e.g. our/their).
Extra challenge (optional): To make it slightly challenging, use people’s names or other pronouns such as ‘Teresa and I, Michael and Jeremy, The dog’ in place of general personal pronouns as this will require students to think of the appropriate possessive adjective. Note: ‘We = Our’ ‘They = Their’ were slightly challenging for students.
MUSICAL CHAIRS WITH CAN - QUESTIONS
Course 2
Materials needed:
Number of chairs (depends on group size - e.g. if there are 8 people playing, this activity only needs 7 chairs)
How to play:
Place chairs in a circle facing each other. Have all students sit down except for one who will be standing in the middle of the circle. The middle person must ask a Can-question E.g. ‘Can you play the piano?’ Those sitting who answer ‘Yes, I can’ must switch seats with other students who answer ‘Yes, I can’. At the same time of movement, the middle person can run to grab their seat as well. The person who is left without a seat takes the middle person’s role to ask a can-question. If only one person says ‘Yes, I can’, that person must switch with the middle person. If NO ONE says ‘Yes’, then the middle person must continue to ask Can-questions.
Advice:
Best to model to students by getting teacher to play the middle person as a form of practice. When students understand how the activity works, teacher may make the activity student-centred by stepping out of the game.
Extra challenge (optional): Depending on student group size and if they’re up for the task, you may set a rule for students that they cannot switch seats with students on their left or right but can switch with people a seat away or across from them.
SPEED CHALLENGE WITH DAYS AND MONTHS
(or anything sequence-based), Course 4
Materials needed:
Flashcards with English words of days or months on one side (words can be substituted for other things like numbers)
How to play:
Lie flashcards upside down, blank-side up. Ask the students to rearrange flashcards in the right sequence for the first time. Once they are comfortable, time them and get them to do it faster and faster to beat their previous times.
Advice:
Best to start without a time first until your students are comfortable with the introduced sequence. Otherwise they might take too long the first time and lose morale.
Extra challenge (optional): N/A
LEARNING PREPOSITIONS WITH ANIMALS
(or any other set of nouns), Course 4
Materials needed:
Flashcards of animals (or any other set of verbs)
How to play:
Introduce the animals (or any other set of nouns) and prepositions separately. Once the kids are starting to familiarise themselves with both in one blended activity. For example, hold a card of a lion above a card of a mouse and ask, “Where is the lion”. The answer you’re looking for is, “The lion is on the mouse”. Give each student who shouts the right answer first 10 points. Do it for as many times as you want until you feel they’ve improved their grasp of the animals and prepositions.
Extra challenge (optional): Distribute animal cards to each kid. Instead of quizzing the students, ask each student to take turns quizzing the others to practice their questioning.
MEMORY GAMES
Materials needed:
2 sets of flashcards from the same topic (verbs, food, animal, etc.)
How to play:
Vocabulary: one set of images and one set with the words. Scatter each set and the kids have to find the correct matches.
Verbs (for example for past simple): one set of the verbs in infinitive and the other set with the verbs in past simple. The kids than have to find the matching verbs.
USE OF SMALL BOARDS
Materials needed:
Small white boards and if needed flashcards.
How to play:
Each kid has its own small white boards. There are different possibilities how to use them. If wanted, the teacher can count points. Very good to avoid the kids to scream answers and very competitive. If the kids still scream answers, the teacher can erase or give negative points.
Possibilities:
Teacher says a word in Spanish, and the kids have to write it in English on their boards.
Teacher shows an image and the kids have to write the name on their boards.
Teacher says a verb in infinitive and the kids have to write the past form (or vice-versa).
CHINESE TELEPHONE
Materials needed:
Board
How to play:
The principle of chinese telephone is that a first person (can be the teacher or a kid) whispers a word or sentence in the ear of a second person. Then that person whispers it in the ear of a third person, and so on until the last person got to hear the word or sentence. That last person then has to write the word or sentence on the board. In the case that the word or sentence is wrong, the teacher can then go backwards and ask each kid what did they hear.
Good to use at the beginning of the class as a review activity. Good activity to also practice pronunciation and the structure of sentences (for example with prepositions of time).
USE OF MULTIMEDIA
songs and videos and books
Songs:
Print song lyrics and listen to the song. Different activities possible:
Find all the vocabulary (family, food, etc.) taught during the lesson
Find all the verbs in the past
Can also be used outside of the curriculum, where the kids have to underline/circle all the words that they know or that they don’t know.
Videos:
Show short videos or animations (from Youtube), 3-6min. There also, different activities possible.
Teacher asks questions based on the grammar learned. For example, if teaching past continuous, the teacher can stop the video at specific moments and ask “What was he/she doing?” and the kids have to answer using the past continuous, fpr example “She was reading”.
Let the kids make questions and anser them. Good to practice making questions.
It is recommended to go over the theory before showing the video. Also it is good to let the kids see it once completely before the exercise.
NUMBER GAME
Materials needed:
Board
How to play:
All the kids have to stand up, and the teacher gives them a logical series of numbers. For example: 1,2,3,4.... or 2,4,6,8,... or 2,5,3,6,4,... . And they have to continue and say the next number, one after the other. When a kid doesn’t know or say a wrong number, he/she has to sit down. The last one standing up, is the winner.
Very quick game as it is possible to play just one or 2 rounds, or 5-6 rounds.
PREPOSITIONS OF PLACE
Materials needed:
One chair per kid, and then a bunch of items (pencils, books, balls, sacks, markers, etc.). Preferably the same number of objects than kids (if there are 5 kids, then 5 pencils, 5 books,etc.), but it can be more competitive with less numbers of objects.
How to play:
Each kid has a chair, aligned at the end of the “field”. In the middle of the field, there are bunch of items like books, pencils, markers, small boards, etc. The teacher says a sentence out loud (ex: there are two pencils behind the chair). The kids then have to run, get the correct item and place it correctly to their chair. The first kid to do it correctly, gets a point.
MR. WOLFF
good for emotion vocabulary
Materials needed:
Flashcards
How to play:
One Kid is Mr. Wolff and has all the flashcards, the others stand in line and ask a Question. For example : The kids ask "How are you?" Mr Wolff answers : " I am (emotion)" and read the emotion at the card. The kids have to go one step forward and go so nearer to Mr. Wolff. When Mr. Wolff answers "I am hungry" all kids have to run and Mr. Wolff tries to catch one kid. The catched kid is the new Mr. Wolff.
GO FISH
Go fish with vocab- can be played with any vocabulary; school, family, clothing etc. Focus on practicing pronunciation
CREATING A STORY
Creating a story with pictures and sentences- take one piece of paper and the first person draws a picture, then the next person has to write one sentence. Fold the paper down so the picture is hidden and the next person must draw a picture based on the previous sentence. This continues until the page is filled. Can give a theme to practice ie. If students are studying the verb "to have" they must write sentences using this verb.
GAME SHOW
Game show- slapping game to practice vocabulary - students are in teams and the teacher shows flashcards and students must slap the table, chair. Whoever slaps first gets to say the correct vocab word. With each correct answer the team gets a point.
BEAN BAG
Bean bag toss to make up a story- each child says a word- take a bean bag and stand in a circle with the students. This can be used to practice vocab, or if the students are more advanced they can each say one word to make a story.
UNO
Game UNO to practice numbers and colors
MEMORY (vocabulary) :
Have two sets of flashcards. One set has pictures and the other set has the corresponding words. Put all the cards face down on a table and the students are allowed to reveal two cards at a time. If the picture matches the word the student can keep the cards. If not the cards go back face down in the same place and the game continues. Can be used with all vocab, numbers, etc.
SCATTEGORIES ( Vocabulary):
Choose one or many categories i.e. food, school, animal etc. and have the students think of as many words as they can that relate to the category. You can play multiple categories and choose one letter i.e. sandwich, scissors, snake.
GAMBLE ON CORRECTING SENTENCES (Grammar/Vocab/Sentence Structure) :
Write some sentences on the board that have errors. They can be any type of errors depending on what you are trying to teach i.e. spelling, sentence structure, grammar. Give a value to each of the sentences depending on their level of difficulty, the most difficult sentence to correct will have the highest value, the easiest will have the lowest. Then ask the students to form groups and to correct the sentences together. When they are ready to correct the sentences one group will choose a sentence to correct, they can choose any value they want. If they successfully correct the sentence they get the value attached to it. If they do not successfully correct the sentence give other groups the opportunity to do it. The team at the end with the highest total wins.
SIMON SAYS (commands/ Action Verbs/ Verbal Comprehension):
Everyone knows this classic. The teacher issues simple instructions to the class. The class responds only if the teacher says the phrase "Simon Says" before the command. If a student performs the action that wasn't prefaced by "Simon Says" they are out. This is a good game for beginner classes to learn classroom commands and simple action verbs.
ALPHABET WORD RACE (Vocabulary):
This game can be played in a variety of ways. For example you can ask the students to try and write a word for every letter of the alphabet. The first team to get all the letters wins or the team with the most answers after a certain time period wins. Or you can focus on one letter or a group of letters and the students need to write as many words as they can starting with that letter.
WHAT IS THIS? (Vocabulary/ Writing):
Divide the students up into two teams and line them up in two lines behind you. Hold up or point to an object and say “What is this?” Stress that the first student in each line must try to say the correct word (using the vocabulary written on the board as a reference). If neither student remembers the correct word, a team member behind them can whisper it in their ear. Then you might want to turn this into a writing activity by erasing the words on the board and having the first team member in each line try to write the correct word. Their team members can help them but only one person on each team can touch the marker. Or, for groups that are getting too rowdy, sit them all back down and have them each individually write the word in their notebook when you show them the object.
BINGO (Vocabulary):
Great game for vocabulary, new or review. Get the students to fill in squares with vocab on their own and then give words one at a time until someone has bingo, you can repeat the process until more people have bingo as well. If reviewing it is good to get the students to come up with the vocabulary on their own, try to elicit as much as possible.
CLASS SURVEY (Speaking/ Writing/ Questions):
Tell the students to stand up with a notebook and pencil in hand. Have them walking around asking different students, “What is your name? How do you spell that?” The students have to try to write down as many names as possible in a limited amount of time (5-8 minutes). Supervise to make sure they are all spelling it to each other and not just writing down names that they know. For more advanced classes, have the students write down a list of 5-10 questions (what is your favorite food, what is the last movie you saw etc.). Then have the students go around the class and ask their classmates the question they created. The students should write down the answers in their notebook. Then spend some time sharing the answers with the whole class.
MOTHER MAY I? (Numbers/Questions with Yes/No Answers):
One student stands at a distance from the rest of the group of students. The group of students take turns asking “Mother may I walk _ steps?” The single students says “Yes you may,” or “No, you may not.” The object is to be the first student from the group to tag the single student. Good review for numbers and questions with yes/no answers.
BEANBAG THROW (Vocabulary / Qs and As/ Speaking):
Very simple and can be boring for more advanced students but easily adaptable for any level. All you need to do is get a bean bag and get the students to pass it among themselves, when they have the beanbag they need to say a word. This can be used for numbers, the alphabet, vocab words or even full sentences. It can also be good for questions and answers, one person asks a question and the person who catches the beanbag has to answer it.
HOT POTATO /MUSICAL CHAIRS (Vocabulary/Qs and As/Speaking):
Similar to bean bag throw, except the students pass the bean bag around the circle while music is playing, when the music stops the last student to touch the bean bag has to say a sentence, vocabulary word, ask a question, etc. Easily adaptable for age/level. Musical Chairs is a similar concept. Lay out one less chair than you have students and when the music stops everyone has to sit down. One person will be left without a seat and they need to answer a questions to continue playing. Can adapt it so more than one person is left standing.
HANGMAN (Alphabet/ Vocabulary):
Traditional game where students have to guess letters one by one and then finally the word. You can either choose one word for quick games, one word in a sentence or a full sentence for more advanced students. If students keep getting wrong answers give the hangman more detail i.e. 5 fingers, toes, eyes etc. You can vary this to play in teams or the whole class.
SLOW WORD REVEAL (Vocabulary):
Choose some vocab and put the words on the board as you would in hangman (blank spaces). Number the words and ask students to choose a word to add a letter to. If they choose number 1 then reveal one letter in the word. After a letter is revealed the team gets to guess what the word is. If they guess the word correctly then they get a point. If they don't guess the word then the other team can reveal another letter.
GUESS WHO (Appearance Vocabulary):
We have the board game in the office and at Tlacochahuaya. Better for more advanced students who already know lots of appearance vocab (mustache, hat, glasses). Can be adapted so the teacher is the only one who knows the person and the students are in two teams or the game can be played with pictures the students have drawn.
I SPY (Vocabulary / Adjectives):
A good game to introduce adjectives. The spy finds an object in the room and tell the class "I spy something." Then the students take turns guessing. The person who guesses the object gets to be the next spy. This is a great game to play at the beginning of class while you are waiting for students to arrive.
WORD /LETTER JUMBLE (Vocabulary /Sentence Structure)
For this you will need either a set of alphabet flashcards or flashcards of the words in your target sentences. If you are playing with two teams you will need two sets of both. The idea is that the teacher will say a word/sentence and then the students have to rearrange the flashcards to make that word/sentence. There are lots of variations of this game you can use so the students don’t get bored. For example, instead of having them all do it at once in a group you could turn it into a relay race so only one student chooses a card at a time. Another variation would be to put a question on the board and the group that forms an answer quickest wins.
ROLE PLAY (Speaking):
This involves getting students to act out a certain scenario. For example, ordering food in a restaurant or talking to a doctor. This activity can be varied in a number of ways. You could have one each group perform in front of the class or have students mingle and act out the scenario in small groups around the classroom.
WORD SEARCH (Vocab):
You can find lots of word searches on the internet or you can make your own. Have a large grid of letters, one letter in a different square. Hide the target words in the grid and have the students find the words. Great for reviewing or introducing vocab.
BANKRUPT (Vocabulary /Sentence Structure / Grammar Review):
The idea of the game is to finish with as much money as possible. You can use flashcards with vocabulary or grammar points on one side then a monetary value on the other. The students pick a card and then if they give the correct answer they win the money. Have some fun cards such as bankrupt (they lose all their money), double money (they double the amount), switch (the team can choose to switch their money with the other team), etc. The game can be adapted easily to suit your class. For example, lower level students may have to use a vocab word to make a sentence or higher level students need to construct a sentence using a certain tense or grammar structure.
FRUIT BOWL (Vocabulary):
Everyone needs to sit or stand in a circle. All of the students pick out a word appropriate to the vocab you’ve been teaching. Get everyone to go round the circle and shout what their word is. A word cannot be used more than once. Select one student to stand in the middle of the circle. You start the game by shouting out one of the other words (not the person in the middle). The person in the middle has to identify who has been called out and then try to tag them. The person who was called has to realise their word has been said and shout another vocab word before the person in the middle tags them. If someone is tagged then they become the person in the middle.
MATH SPELLING (Math and Number Vocabulary/ Spelling):
Divide the students into two lines. Write a simple arithmetic expression on the board. The students at the front of the line have to correctly spell the answer. The team that can correctly spell the number first gets a point. You can make it harder by asking them to correctly spell/write the whole expression.
AGE ORDER (Number/ Month Vocabulary/ Questions):
Have the students try to line up as quickly as they can in order of age. They must ask each other "how old are you" and can only speak English. After they can try to line up according to which month they were born.
INDIVIDUAL WHITEBOARD GAMES:
1. Write numbers 1-10 on the board. Split class into teams and give each team a small whiteboard and a pen. Using the vocab/verbs that you have gone over in class (can also be written on the board), teacher erases a number and the teams have to create a sentence with that number of words in it. The first team to craft a correct sentence with the appropriate number of words gets a point. Good way to push students to write longer, more creative sentences as well as incorporate vocab/verbs from that day into sentences. Best for more intermediate students.
2. Telephone variation: Split class into teams and give each team a small whiteboard and a pen. Teacher whispers a sentence to one team member, they have to run back to their teammates and repeat the sentence. The first team to write the sentence correctly on their whiteboard gets the point.
DICE GAMES:
1. (Vocab/Sentence Structure) With paddle white boards: roll the dice and students have to make a sentence with the same amount of words as shown on the dice. You can use 1 and 2 as trick numbers i.e. 1 = bankrupt, 2 = double points. When the students have made a sentence they need to write it on the paddle board and the first team to finish correctly and show the sentence wins.
2. (Vocab/Sentence Structure) If you're going over vocabulary, separate words into 2 to 6-letter words. Use dice to roll the number of letters in a word that they'll use in a sentence. Have everyone roll the dice and use different words.
CRAYONS AND PAPER GAMES:
1. (Vocab/Sentence Structure) Draw pictures of the vocabulary you're working on. Cut them apart, share them, and use them in sentences.
2. (Directions/Giving Directions/Commands) Make hand drawn maps of different parts of town. Give directions from one place to another. Make sure the students have already studied instructions - can be difficult to explain.
3. (Adjectives) Create name tags for each other with alliteration: Super Susana, Marvelous Maria, Excellent Esteban. Think of as many adjectives as you can for each person.
4. (Appearance Vocab) Get students to draw pictures of themselves. They can either write sentences about their own appearance or tell other classmates.
MAGAZINES AND BROCHURES:
1. (Descriptions/Writing/Speaking) Pick a picture and have students describe what they see. It may be very simple: "he is wearing a white shirt," "she is talking." Identify colors, objects and verbs. Count objects. Have each student write a simple story about what's happening in the picture.
2. (Clothes/Vacation Vocab) Go on "vacation" with a theme, for example, to the beach. Cut out wardrobe photos and have students "pack" their bag by gluing pictures into their notebooks. Pick activities to do while you're there. Have each student describe his or her choices to the group.
3. (Food/Restaurant Vocab/Speaking) Cut out food items and make a menu. Give each student a peso limit and have one of them add up selections. Play waiter and diner. Talk about common phrases to use in a restaurant.
4. (Directions) Get free maps from the tourist bureau and go over how to give and understand directions. Have pairs of students tell each other how to get from one place to another.
5. (Action Verbs/Writing/Speaking) Paste pictures onto index cards to illustrate action verbs. Have each student use them in a sentence, spell the word etc.
6. (Listening Comprehension/Speaking) Give groups of students magazines and ask them to search for something i.e. find a person with black hair. For bonus points ask them to repeat phrases associated with the class i.e. She has black hair.